Workspace assemblies of the aforementioned type are well known in the prior art. Due to the demands of a modern society for greater numbers of office jobs and work at computers, sitting and working at a desk in its present form has become the predominant body posture of the working population. The increasing amount of time spent by individuals working at desks calls for enhanced ergonomic measures to prevent tension, pain and long-term damage to the musculoskeletal system resulting from office work or sitting at a desk. Prolonged periods of sitting can be hazardous to your health, as is demonstrated by the increasing incidence of muscle and musculoskeletal disorders. Physical abilities such as conditioning, muscle strength, reactivity and responsiveness may be lost, and limited functioning of the immune system and the internal organs may also result in people who spend all their time in a seated position.
To keep the body healthy, it may be necessary to keep the body moving more than is possible with currently conventional seating. Ergonomic work can result in increased efficiency of desk work, and a variety of measures for improving flexibility and ergonomics in the work environment have already been proposed, such as ergonomic chairs for improving the seated posture of users. Also known are standing desks, which can be used with a suitable desktop for working in a standing position, for example with books or other documents.
These measures have contributed to increasing efficiency in work environments, but they are not able to keep up with modern demands given the growing need for multitasking and increasing amounts of office work. The latter is generally organized in such a way that it can be accomplished with minimal movement effort, however this has proven to be detrimental when extended over the entire workday since the lack of movement leads to a lack of concentration. Complex movements are considered to be extremely positive for the human organism, whereas linear movements are considered more harmful to the organism.
It is known to arrange work stations in the form of a “cockpit solution”, in which any superfluous movement is avoided and the time spent per operation is optimized in the interest of saving time, however this type of work can actually decrease work efficiency and wellness. In contrast, a workspace configuration in which phases of exertion and relaxation can be alternated and working positions and postures can be varied in short intervals can increase the working efficiency of those concerned.
DE 10 2012 100 847 discloses an arrangement of desks in a substantially circular configuration, in which a first desktop and a second desktop are provided, along with an organization center that includes a third desktop, and in which the first, second and third desktops are each embodied as separate from the others and at different heights.
Although such an arrangement can induce substantially different working postures by users changing from one desktop to another, thereby responding to the need for greater movement, it has been found that users who are performing intensive tasks will tend to remain in the same space, and as a result, users do not take advantage of the available opportunity to assume different postures and perform different series of movements to the extent desired.